After two recesses and four hours of discourse, Kern County officials approved the new system and rates Tuesday for the county’s trash collection in its three zones — metro Bakersfield, western Kern and eastern Kern — with select areas removed from each.

Lawn trimmings, chicken bones and banana peels: the scraps, once tossed from the mind the moment they landed in the trash, are now dumped at the center of a debate between the county and some of its rural residents over who should handle their waste and at what cost.

Former Republican challenger David Shepard, R-Porterville, released a memorandum Thursday that alleges various “administrative errors and likely violations” among three of the four county election offices that comprise California’s 16th State Senate District.

A little more than a month after her removal, Assemblywoman Jasmeet Bains, D-Bakersfield, was reinstated earlier this month to the Assembly Business and Professions Committee.

The last time Brik McDill ventured to Los Angeles, it was to the Los Angeles International Airport. The Kern County resident sped along Interstate 405 toward arrivals, scooped up his family, and exited on Century Boulevard. As he continued out of the airport thoroughfare that day in 2021, he…

Facing an uncertain economy, Bakersfield City Manager Christian Clegg on Wednesday proposed a nearly $391 million budget for the 2023-24 fiscal year, a $7.4 million increase that reflected continued challenges for Bakersfield, from its housing deficits to the accumulating vacancies in public…

Alejandra Velasco, a farmworker in Taft, began her day on Feb. 23 with a note on her front door. The note, issued by her landlord, was a notice to vacate. She had 60 days to pack her belongings and her family and leave. Velasco was being evicted, and no explanation was provided.

In January, Jasmeet Bains entered office for the 35th District as the first Indian-origin Sikh woman elected to the state Assembly. Last week, Bains again broke ground for Sikhs, as the first to be removed from a state committee.

After word spread last week that the state oil and gas supervisor had stepped down, once the Newsom administration thanked him for his service and the industry lamented the influence of politics on the position, environmental justice activists stepped up to take a little credit.

Local Republican leaders stood by Rep. Kevin McCarthy after his failure Tuesday to win enough votes to become speaker of the House, and even Kern’s top Democrat predicted Bakersfield’s most powerful politician will eventually claim the gavel, as consensus emerged that the televised balloting…

Several days after the end of Kern County’s recount of November 2022 ballots, state Sen. Melissa Hurtado, D-Sanger, announced Tuesday her campaign will seek a count of its own.

Recounts in three of the four counties in state Senate District 16 remain in various stages of completion this week, with two all but finished, one expected to wrap up shortly after the holiday weekend and another yet to begin, election officials said Friday.

Kern County has an estimated 106,683 unprocessed ballots still to be processed from Tuesday's General Election, according to Mary Bedard, Kern County clerk and registrar of voters.

While the Kern County-backed campaign for a tax hike to support basic emergency services had the simple majority it needed to pass based on early returns, a union-backed measure to install term limits received overwhelming support, based on the same results. 

Rep. David Valadao pulled ahead of his Democratic challenger, Assemblyman Rudy Salas, in early results Tuesday night in the hard-fought race for California's 22nd Congressional District seat.

After winning the primary by nearly 14 percent, Republican candidate David Shepard is hopeful the trend continues, but he'll likely have to wait at least a few days to find out.